Public transit in Dushanbe

It's pretty easy to get around in Dushanbe.

There are nice new buses that run along the main boulevards, like Rudaki.

Some routes even have electronic signs that indicate when the next bus is coming

There are trolleys on main routes too--some a little older, and prone to the wires sparking out, but still pretty good.

Going out to the poorer sections of town, the buses tend to be older, but at least they exist.

A Tajik acquaintance of ours who had spent a high school year in the U.S., told us that the hardest thing for her to get used to was the lack of public transit and needing to ask her host family or friends for rides.

On the secondary routes throughout the city, and out into the areas surrounding Dushanbe, there are minibuses.

On the big buses, there's a conductor at the center door. He often shouts out the route, looks for potential passengers hurrying to board so as to wait for them, and takes the one somoni (less than 15 cents) fare. On the smaller vans, passengers help each other with the sliding door or with sending the fare up to the driver and passing the change back. You might have to get out to let the person next to you disembark.

Anything that goes on a fixed route is a "marshrutka." In addition to the minibuses, there are--or rather were--unofficial taxis. Drivers (anyone with a car and no fixed employment, needing a bit of extra income) would hold up a card with the number eight on it, or flash three fingers up, and you knew that car was driving the #8 or #3 route. You could stand on the side of the road, really anywhere on the route, and flag down such a car. It cost three times as much as a bus or trolley (three somoni, less than 40 cents), but it tended to get you to your destination faster. (Lee doesn't like them, compared to a bus, because he has to squeeze his tall self into a small car, but they can be quite convenient.)

I'd heard about periodic crackdowns on these informal taxis--which don't pay for a license--and one just started a few days ago. I realized that something had happened while standing in the pouring rain and wondering where all my usual transit options were. "The mayor decided to 'improve the quality of life' in Dushanbe," I was told. "Plainclothes police are flagging down drivers that flash numbers and then levying heavy fines on them."

Now the buses are much more crowded than they used to be:

People are not sure about that quality of life.

One more thing about public transit: Tajiks are very polite in terms of offering their seats to the elderly, women with children, or people with packages.

These school boys offered a seat to the "grandfather."

Carrying a "torte" to a celebration

I should also add that there are no transit websites or route maps in English. The expat community passes on information to each other. Or one could just get on a minibus and ride--seeing where it goes.
 
Readers who want to learn more about the mayor and other changes he's instituted for public transit might enjoy this article.